Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Tea Party's John Burns Involved In James O'Keefe's Plot to "Seduce" CNN Correspondent

John Burns of American Majority and the St. Louis tea party was implicated in a story about disgraced conservative hitman James O'Keefe's ploy to "embarrass a CNN correspondent by recording a meeting on hidden cameras aboard a floating palace of pleasure' and making sexually suggestive comments, e-mails and a planning document show," according to CNN. Burns is best known in St. Louis for leading the tea party's failed efforts to block funding for public transportation, for ridiculously accusing Washington University of "fraud" in the aftermath of a hoax conducted by him and O'Keefe, and, worst of all, for writing "free abortions" on the back of a sign in an attempt to sabotage pro-gay marriage rally.

The CNN article claims:

James O'Keefe, best known for hitting the community organizing group ACORN with an undercover video sting, hoped to get CNN Investigative Correspondent Abbie Boudreau onto a boat filled with sexually explicit props and then record the session, those documents show.

O'Keefe was reportedly going to introduce the segment as follows, according to documents obtained by CNN:

My name is James. I work in video activism and journalism. I've been approached by CNN for an interview where I know what their angle is: they want to portray me and my friends as crazies, as non-journalists, as unprofessional and likely as homophobes, racists or bigots of some sort....

Instead, I've decided to have a little fun. Instead of giving her a serious interview, I'm going to punk CNN. Abbie has been trying to seduce me to use me, in order to spin a lie about me. So, I'm going to seduce her, on camera, to use her for a video. This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she'll get seduced on camera and you'll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath.

Please sit back and enjoy the show.

It's not entirely clear what John Burns' role was in the plot. The article cites him as being included in O'Keefe's email correspondane about the plan:

CNN was forwarded an e-mail, sent from O'Keefe's e-mail address, to the executive director of Project Veritas, Izzy Santa; and two conservative activists, Ben Wetmore of New Orleans and Jonathon Burns of St. Louis, Missouri, dated after the call with Boudreau.

Burns would not respond to CNN. Hopefully, some local reporters can get to the bottom of this.

2 comments:

Let us not forget, also, that the St. Louis Tea Party proudly invited O'Keefe to speak last November: http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2009/11/4000-patriots-join-james-okeefe-at-st-louis-tea-party-protest/

And that STL Tea Party leader Gina Loudon wrote a paean to O'Keefe on her blog after his arrest for his phone tapping "prank" http://drginaloudon.com/general/update-hanging-ben-style/

Not only is John Burns, an active member of the STL Tea Party, apparently a regular accomplice in planning O'Keefe's schemes, but the leaders of the Tea Party also know O'Keefe, support O'Keefe, and have defended his tactics again and again.

About St. Louis Activist Hub

The St. Louis Activist Hub blog is the home of weekly event listings for progressive activism across St. Louis. It is also a group blog where a variety of St. Louis viewpoints are presented. You can follow the Activist Hub on Twitter and join the Facebook group for further ways to stay connected.